Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. Warren Buffett When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze. Thomas Carlyle If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend 6 sharpening my axe. Abraham Lincoln Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice. Thoreau The pioneers cleared the forests from Jamestown to the Mississippi with fewer tools than are stored in the typical modern garage. Dwayne Laws From a fallen tree, all... Continue reading

Climb mountains to see lowlands. Chinese Proverb The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. Anon Success is not counted by how high you have climbed but by how many people you brought with you. Wil Rose It is the ultimate wisdom of the mountains that a man is never more a man than when he is striving for what is beyond his grasp. James Ramsey Ullman Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. Basho If you wish to know the road up the mountain, ask the man... Continue reading

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to create him. Arthur C. Clarke Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it. Vladimir Mayakovsky A man paints with his brains and not with his hands. Michelangelo Every separate thought takes shape and becomes visible in color and form. Liu Hua-Yang The universe is one of God’s thoughts. Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller If you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful:... Continue reading

Freedom – to walk free and own no superior. Walt Whitman Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men. Mortimer Adler Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. Bob Marley Bit by bit… she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another. Toni Morrison No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. Abraham Lincoln We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves... Continue reading

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau We should face reality and our past mistakes in an honest, adult way. Boasting of glory does not make glory, and singing in the dark does not dispel fear. King Hussein Love is not a victory march. Leonard Cohen The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at... Continue reading

Joy is not in things, it is in us. Richard Wagner You can’t have everything. Where would you put it? Stephen Wright Large desire is endless poverty. Indian proverb We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as scaling down our wants. Not wanting some thing is as good as possessing it. Donald Horban Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it. Stephen Leacock What really matters is what you do with what you have. Shirly Lord When we are not rich enough to be able to purchase... Continue reading

Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price. Amelia Earhart Words have no wings but they can fly many thousands of miles. Korean proverb There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas. Anne Morrow Lindbergh The airplane stays up because it doesn’t have the time to fall. Orville Wright Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you’re at! Up above the world you fly! Like a tea tray in... Continue reading

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten. Buddha How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. Marcus Aurelius “I lose my temper, but it’s all over in a minute,” said the student. “So is the hydrogen bomb,” I replied. “But think of the damage it produces!” George Sweeting I do not like this word “bomb.” It is not a bomb. It is a device that is exploding. Jacques le Blanc—French ambassador to New Zealand... Continue reading

All I want is a warm bed and a kind word, and unlimited power. Ashleigh Brilliant All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power. Ralph Waldo Emerson My fellow Americans. I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. President Reagan I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others. Thomas Jefferson No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. Alice Walker Never get angry. Never... Continue reading

Beauty: That power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. Ambrose Bierce Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do. Katharine Hepburn Instinct is untaught ability. Alexander Bain Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. Woody Allen There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton In our society those who are in reality superior in intelligence can be accepted by their fellows only if they pretend they are not. Marya Mannes The common practice of keeping up appearances... Continue reading

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying. Woody Allen I feel my immortality over sweep all pains, all tears, all time, all fears, —and peal, like the eternal thunders of the deep, into my ears, this truth; thou livest forever! Byron Hope is the expectation that something outside of ourselves, something or someone external, is going to come to our rescue and we will live happily ever after. Dr. Robert Anthony Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as... Continue reading

Monday I have Friday on my mind. The Easybeats By working faithfully eight hours a day, you might eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day. Robert Frost What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork. Pearl Bailey A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking big money. Everett M. Dirksen-US politician I hate being a grown-up. Having to learn things I don’t want to know really pisses me off. Overheard, quoted by Barbara Sher Having more money does not ensure happiness. People with ten million dollars are no... Continue reading

It doesn’t pay to say too much when you are mad enough to choke. For the word that stings the deepest is the word that is never spoke. Let the other fellow wrangle till the storm has blown away, then he’ll do a heap of thinking about the things you didn’t say. James Whitcomb Riley When anger rises, think of the consequences. Confucius Anger is a short madness. Romanian proverb Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we are driven out of Paradise; because of impatience we cannot return. Franz Kafka It’s Been Lovely But I... Continue reading

Use power to curb power. Chinese Proverb I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Councils of war never fight. Proverb FLAG, n. A colored rag borne above troops and hoisted on forts and ships. It appears to serve the same purpose as certain signs that one sees on vacant lots in London—”Rubbish may be... Continue reading

It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone. Henry David Thoreau Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. Leonardo da Vinci If you’re going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill A man never reaches that dizzy height of wisdom that... Continue reading

Just as there’s garbage that pollutes the Potomac River, there is garbage polluting our culture. We need an Environmental Protection Agency to clean it up. Patrick Buchanan It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest. Romanian Proverb SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Ambrose Bierce You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.... Continue reading

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men and the fools know it. Oliver Wendell Holmes There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech. Ilya G. Ehrenburg It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree. Leo McKern My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating. Ashleigh Brilliant Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure. Bertrand Russell The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the front page usually records nothing but man’s failures. Earl Warren All the news that’s fit to print. Motto of the New York Times from 1896... Continue reading

A man must consider what rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist. Ralph Waldo Emerson I’ve been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn’t require my presence. Gary Trudeau He who learns and runs away, lives to learn another day. Edward Lee Thorndike I was court-martialed in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. Brendan F. Behan So daily I renew my duty; I touch her here and there, I know my place; I kiss her open mouth, I praise her beauty and... Continue reading

“Is this one tribe or a stranger?” is the calculation of the narrow-minded; but to those of a noble disposition the world itself is but one family. Hitopadesa proverb We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. English proverb Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart ...who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside awakes. Carl Gustav Jung It was . . . enough to suffer as a woman, an individual, on one’s own account, without having to suffer for the race as well. It was brutality, and undeserved. Nella... Continue reading

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. Samuel Johnson A child is a quicksilver fountain Spilling over with tomorrows and tomorrows And that is why She is richer than you and I. Tom Bradley Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver. Barbara De Angelis Practice random acts of kindness. Modern Saying Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. Albert Schweitzer He who sows courtesy reaps friendship,... Continue reading

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come. Chinese Proverb A forest bird never wants a cage. Henrik Ibsen We think caged birds sing, when indeed they cry. John Webster A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Chinese Proverb A guest sees more in an hour than the host in a year. Polish Proverb How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success. Anne Sophie Swetchine “Hope” is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tunes... Continue reading

We have Christmas, New Year, and, are sailing into 2017 with Mercury retrograde in it's backward dance In Capricorn and back into the end of Sagittarius. We are being asked to pace ourselves right when Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus can have us wanting to push forward. What an interesting time! With Mercury going direct on the Galactic Center on January 8, we have an extended time to make our affirmations... of course, any time is great for making affirmations, but, especially the end of December and through to mid January. :) Feel that you could use a reading? Click here... Continue reading

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. Denis Waitley What a cunning mixture of sentiment, pity, tenderness and irony surrounds adolescence, what knowing watchfulness! Young birds on their first flight are hardly so hovered around. Georges Bernanos In a broken nest there are few whole eggs. Chinese Proverb Birds in their little nest agree; and ‘tis a shameful sight, when children of one family fall out, and chide, and fight. Isaac Watts God stirs up our comfortable nests and pushes us over the edge of them, and we are... Continue reading

No pressure, no diamonds. Mary Case Crystals grew inside rock like arithmetic flowers. They lengthened and spread, added plane to plane in an awed and perfect obedience to an absolute geometry that even stones—maybe only the stones—understood. Annie Dillard I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on. Rita Dove In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. Mahatma Gandhi I see where we... Continue reading

If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. Anon Your treasure house is within; it contains all you’ll ever need. Hui-Hai The fortune, which nobody sees, makes a person happy and unenvied. Francis Bacon He does not posses wealth that allows it to possess him. Benjamin Franklin Who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure. Jewish Saying Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung. William Morris The man who treasures his friends is usually solid gold himself. Marjorie Holmes Treasure your relationships, not your possessions. Anthony J.... Continue reading